Category: Sewing

Yep. My sewing room looks like I’ve been robbed. I need to seriously declutter, tidy and organise this room, but it’s soooo easy to put off. Yesterday afternoon – I made a start.

I started by getting organised a Donate section, a take to school section (craft items going to the school chaplains program), a bin bag and finally, I went against everything and I made a “put elsewhere” box and got started.

Of course, Once I’d completed the 1 hour I could dedicate to that task, and the kids had gone to bed, I sat down and tackled Pinterest for inspiration and ideas. Ohhhh a peg board! I want that! I knew I wanted to move my embroidery machine around to make room for my laptop and to set an actual “office space” up, but, I had one cupboard in my future office section, that I’ve been trying to keep clean or sort out ever since I moved my felt in there, off the bench – you know, to make it tidy (hahaha) – but I couldn’t come up with, or find a solution…..

This cupboard has felt sheets, postage stuff, office supplies and god only knows what else in there. I even threw out all my scraps a while ago in an effort to fix the issue. Oh dear. Pinterest and google searches weren’t helping at all. Until I come across a site that mentioned the sheets are “approximately the size of an A4 sheet or slightly smaller”.

There was lots of mentions and suggestions about hanging files and filing cabinets but I thought, they aren’t stiff like cardboard and will easily bend if not full (like some of my paper tends to do) and they will end up piled in the bottom of the folder – that’s no good. Plus my filing cabinet is the other side of the room, I don’t have room to move it, I don’t want to have to keep getting up (lazy much?!) – I need my stuff easily accessible when working. Maybe I could attach something inside the cupboard???

And then it hit me! I had 4-5 large folders with 4 D clips in, that currently holds patterns… I was going to declutter severely down to one or 2 folders (because I have them accessible to me at any time if I REALLY needed them, and most of the time I can’t find the pieces needed or it doesn’t occur to me I already have the pattern printed, so I re-print the pages as I need them anyway).

Inspiration hit – And guess what?? MY FELT SHEETS FIT!! I found a Felt Storage Solution that works for me. I can lay the folders down or stand them up. I can sort by colours, and place a different colour sheet in each individual pocket and they are neat, tidy, accessible and functional! I can even put a label on the edge with all the colours in the folder – easily accessible and I can view at a glance.

See the fluff that gets on the felt sheets usually?

I’m feeling proud I’ve come up with a Felt Storage Solution that works perfectly for me, using what I already have. I still have a looooooooong way to go for this room. But I’ve made a start – and that’s the important thing.

busy (adjective)

1. having a great deal to do.

“he had been too busy to enjoy himself”

Even the definition of busy smacks you right in the face doesn’t it!? Too busy to enjoy yourself. I read a fantastic article called Busy is the New Fine – Why I am Fighting Back and it really resonated with me. That’s one of the reasons I finally finished making my plan and writing these articles. I need this plan in place, to knock things off one at a time ready for the School Holidays that is coming up soon (super, super quickly!). And hopefully inspire someone to take a break from busy!

My Sewing Plan:

Sewing has been such a stressful part of my life for so long it’s no longer as enjoyable as it once was. Changes need to be made, they may not be permanent changes, but hopefully it will bring the joy back into the process.

Finish my large sewing order!

Re-stock the shop.

Say ‘no’ to more Custom Orders.

2017 will ONLY be sewing for the shop & embroidery work for markets.

My Studying Plan:

“Everything you do now is for your future. Think about that”. Studying is sometimes hard, and I realise I need to ask for help sometimes, I’m determined to complete this certificate.

Get back into the swing of things and actually commit to studying at least one day a week.

2017 finish certificate by Easter.

My Technology Plan:

More and more I find I’m living and enjoying moments through my phone. I’m missing out on the little things and that’s not right. So I’m taking a leaf from PopSugars Digital Detox, changing it slightly to suit me and going without as much as possible.

Delete Facebook, Groups & Messenger Apps – if people want me, they can text or call.

Experiences will bring myself and my family joy and create wonderful memories, NOT stuff. This may not seem like much of a plan, BUT it’s my plan. I feel relieved making this and “writing” it down. How about you? If you could do anything, what would it be? If you could declutter your mind and your life, where would you start?

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that I have a little hobby page Little Cherry Owl. Generally I LOVVVEEEE what I do. Not only sewing pretty clothes for girls (that are a respectable length when worn), but also doing embroidery.

Today while sewing up some shorts for an order, I thought why not make a start on some
embroidery work for my next markets. I can have one machine working with minimal supervision (on certain things that require no appliqué work {read cutting around tiny little pieces of fabric} like keyrings) while I sew up some shorts for an order.

This process started well, set the machine, get it all ready, 40 minute sewing time, excellent. I’ll go do school drop off, go for my walk with another school mum and then come home and it will be ready for the next step – no. My machine had other plans.

First the yellow thread snapped while I was out. So when I got home I was only 10 minutes into my 40 minute stitch time. Fixed that and brought in my groceries, because I decided to do that while I was out, and hung out another load of washing. Luckily the yellow finished all on its own.

Next is the backing and the red outline stitch. Oh my word! That has done my head in! This step that was only supposed to be 10 minutes of stitch time has turned into an ALL DAY PROCESS!!!! Approx every 200 stitches it comes up with this:

Which means my thread has broken, again. For the what seems like 100th time today! Note the 25,800 stitches, yeahhhh imagine having to re-thread a machine every 200 stitches of approx 5,000 of those…..
Thankfully, I’m done now. But I’m ready to bang my head against a brick wall!!! Who said hobbies were relaxing?!?

Christine xx

Ps: I did manage to make some super cute Marshall Finger Puppets. Turns out, red & I aren’t agreeing today, but at least I like my machine again….. until next time anyway 😉